But here the problem becomes more complicated; for the stone, the plant and the animal do not possess the intellectual power to create and initiate and so must blindly obey the laws that are natural for them; they are not free to determine their own destinies. Not so with man; man has the capacity and he [pg 086] can, through ignorance or neglect or mal-intent, deviate from, or misinterpret, the natural laws for the human class of life. Just therein lies the secret and the source of human chaos and woe—a fact of such tremendous importance that it cannot be over-emphasized and it seems impossible to evade it longer. To discover the nature of Man and the laws of that nature, marks the summit of human enterprises. For to solve this problem is to open the way to everything which can be of importance to humanity—to human welfare and happiness.
The great problem has been felt as a powerful impulse throughout the ages of human striving, for in all times it has been evident to thinkers that upon the right solution of the problem must forever depend the welfare of mankind. Many “solutions” have been offered; and, though they have differed widely, they agree in one respect—they have had a common fate—the fate of being false. What has been the trouble? The trouble has been, in every instance, a radical misconception of what a human being really is. The problem is to discover the natural laws of the human class of life. All the “solutions” offered in the course of history and those which are current to-day are of two and only two kinds—zoological and mythological. The zoological solutions are those which grow out of the false conception according to which human beings are animals; [pg 087] if humans are animals, the laws of human nature are the laws of animal nature; and so the social “sciences” of ethics, law, politics, economics, government become nothing but branches of zoology; as sciences, they are the studies of animal life; as arts, they are the arts of managing and controlling animals; according to this zoological philosophy, human wisdom about human beings is animal wisdom about animals.
The mythological “solutions” are those which start with the monstrous conception according to which human beings have no proper place in nature but are mixtures of natural and supernatural—unions or combinations of animality and divinity. Such “solutions” contain no conception of natural law; scientifically judged, they are mythological absurdities—muddle-headed chattering of crude and irresponsible metaphysics—well-meaning no doubt, but silly, and deadly in their effects upon the interests of mankind, vitiating ethics, law, economics, politics and government.
Such have been and still are the regnant philosophies of human nature. What is the remedy? How are the laws of human nature to be discovered?
It is evident that the enterprise, like all other scientific enterprises, must be based upon and guided by realities. It is essential to realize that the great, central, dominant, all-embracing reality is the reality [pg 088] of human nature. If we misconceive this fundamental matter, the enterprise must fail; that is both logically clear and clear in the sad light of history; but if we conceive it aright, we may confidently expect the enterprise to prosper. That is why, in the chapter on “The Classes of Life,” I have laid so much stress on the absolute necessity of conceiving Man as being what he really is, and not something else. And we have discovered what man is: we have discovered that man is characterized by the capacity or power to bind time, and so we have defined humanity as the time-binding class of life. That concept is fundamental. It contains the germ of the science and art of Human Engineering. The problem of discovering and applying the “laws of human nature” is the problem of discovering and applying to the conduct of life the laws of time-binding—of time-binding activity—of time-binding energy. This fact must be firmly seized and kept steadily in mind.
Energy, we have noted, is the capacity to do work. In human economy work may be (1) useful or (2) neutral or (3) harmful. These words have no significance except in human economy. The energy of the human intellect is a time-binding energy, for it is able to direct, to use, to transform other energies. This time-binding energy is of higher rank—of higher dimensionality—than the other natural energies which it directs, controls, uses, and transforms. [pg 089] This higher energy—which is commonly called the mental or spiritual power of man—is time-binding because it makes past achievements live in the present and present activities in time-to-come. It is an energy that initiates; it is an energy that creates; it is an energy that can understand the past and foretell the future—it is both historian and prophet; it is an energy that loads abstract time—the vehicle of events—with an ever-increasing burden of intellectual achievements, of spiritual wealth, destined for the civilization of posterity. And what is the natural law of the increase? What is the natural law of human advancements in all great matters of human concern?
The question is of utmost importance both theoretically and practically, for the law—whatever it be—is a natural law—a law of human nature—a law of the time-binding energy of man. What is the law? We have already noted the law of arithmetical progression and the law of geometric progression; we have seen the immense difference between them; and we have seen that the natural law of human progress in each and every cardinal matter is a law like that of a rapidly increasing geometric progression. In other words, the natural law of human progress—the natural law of amelioration in human affairs—the fundamental law of human nature—the basic law of the time-binding energy [pg 090] peculiar to man—is a Logarithmic law—a law of logarithmic increase. I beg the reader not to let the term bewilder him but to make it his own. It is easy to understand; and its significance is mighty and everlasting. Even its mathematical formulation can be understood by boys and girls. Let us see how the formulation looks.
Suppose PR to denote the amount of progress made in some important field by a given generation—which we may call the “first” generation; where R denotes the common ratio—the ratio of improvement—that is, the number by which the progress of one generation must be multiplied to give the amount of progress made by the next generation; then the amount of progress made by the second generation will be PR2; that made by the third generation will be PR3; and so on; now denote by T the number of generations, counting the first one and all that follow in endless succession. Then the following series will show the law of human progress in the chosen field:
PR, PR2, PR3, PR4, PR5, ..., PRT, PRT+1, ...;
notice how it goes; the first generation ends with PR; the second generation starts with PR, adds PR2, and ends with PR + PR2; the third generation starts with PR + PR2, adds PR3 and ends with PR + PR2 + PR3; and so on and on; the gain made in [pg 091] the Tth generation is PRT; the total gain made in T generations is